Things started out well, sort of, for Pontiac in its Corn Belt Conference volleyball match with Mahomet-Seymour. It just didn’t very well as the visitors claimed a three-set victory at PTHS.

Mahomet had to fight off the Indians to take the match 21-25, 25-20, 25-20.

Pontiac’s demise came in the form of being just a smidge off. The passing wasn’t crisp and many attacks were a bit off.

“It’s not much, but it’s enough and it hurts,” PTHS head coach Stephanie Smithson said of the issues plaguing the Tribe. “That’s been the story this year.”

Still, PTHS was putting pressure on the Bulldogs in all three sets. Pontiac held leads in each one. There were 11 lead changes and 23 ties in the match.

The third set hurt the most as the Indians grabbed an early lead, lost it, got it back and lost it again.

Emily Wertz got the first two points of the tiebreaker when an attack went wide for Mahomet and Wertz fired an ace.

Mahomet led 9-7 when PTHS came back. A tip kill from Kaela Hodges gave the Tribe a 12-11 lead. The margin reached 15-11 after an Ashley Johnson kill. It was her ninth of the night. She finished with a team-high 10 kills.

The Bulldogs fought back behind the hitting of Elise Dahlke and defense. Lindsey Ogle and Sophie Christiansen blocked a Haley Fairfield attack that gave Mahomet a 17-16 lead. The Bulldogs did not trail the rest of the way.

The problem, as Smithson saw it, was in the Indians’ serve receive.

“We just can’t pass the ball off a serve,” Smithson said. “It’s hard to get a quick when the ball is off the net.”

It limited a number of attacks and pushed the timing off on sets.

Carli Grieff nearly missed three attacks when she was off a bit on some quicks. She was able to deliver with 5 kills on the night in contributing to the Indians’ 27 kills on the night.

Pontiac found itself down 20-15 in the first game when Smithson used a timeout. The Tribe got a sideout and Hodges stepped to the line.

In quick fashion, the Indians rattled off four straight points, the last coming when Mahomet failed to return a serve, to tie the game at 20-20.

Page 2 of 2 - A timeout did not stop the momentum as Pontiac got points off a Fairfield block, a Grieff kill and ace to force another M-S timeout. PTHS got another point before Mahomet netted a sideout.

Fairfield ended the game on the next serve with a kill.

PTHS built a 4-1 lead in the second game as Brown got two kills and an ace. It stayed close throughout with 11 ties and five lead changes.

A Grieff kill broke a tie and her block on the next play made it 17-15. Caley Roahrig got the service point on the play, but it proved to be Pontiac’s final offensive point of the set. Its three final points came on sideouts.

Mason Moore rattled off seven straight points to start the push and change the momentum. Dahlke ended the game with a kill.

“We got down and came back, but we lost the serve receive in the second and third games,” Smithson said.

Hodges had 10 service points for Pontiac and Fairfield had 16 assists. Kristin Johnson and Fairfield had 10 digs apiece.

Dahlke had 12 kills for Mahomet. Ogle added 7 and Maddie See had 6 kills. Moore had 10 service points.

Mahomet took the sophomore match 25-18, 25-22. Katie Kuska had 5 service points for Pontiac. The Indians won the freshman match 25-20, 25-17. Ashley Harfst and Miranda Fitzsimmons had 9 points apiece.